Author 




Title 



Imprint. 



lCr-47372-2 OPO 



THE 



HUGUENOT ELEMENT 



AMONG THE DUTCH, 



BY 



ASHBEL G. VERMILYE, D. D., 



SCHENECTADY, N. Y. 






F 
/8VS 




i 




THE 



HUGUENOT ELEMENT 



AMONG THE DUTCH. 



BY 



ASHBEL G. VERMILYE, D. D., 



SCHENECTADY, N. Y. ^ 






'01 



THE HUGUENOT ELEMENT AMONG THE DUTCH. 



" Out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." — Rev., v : 9. 



"When we apply the spectroscope to the rays of the sun, certain 
fine lines of light of different colors appear, which indicate to the 
practiced eye the presence of various mineral vapors in the atmos- 
phere of the great luminary. If in the analysis the iron predomi- 
nates in quantity, other substances are yet seen to have contrib- 
uted a proportionate measure to the intensity, and brilliancy, and 
power of those rays which are the controlling force of the world. 
Nor can we fail to perceive how widely this principle of combining- 
the best results of different substances, to produce one greater 
result, enters into the processes of nature. The tree collects its 
energies from many sources of the earth and air, has searched 
many materials for the beautiful blush and the fine flavor of the 
peach. So that garden and that bouquet are the best and most 
beautiful that contain the choicest varieties, the well assorted 
productions of many climes. On the otiier hand, how sluggish 
and poor the life of the nation to which white winged commerce 
brings not, as to a nest, those commodities of the outside world 
which may there be assimilated into energy for the brain, vital 
force in the blood, and strong tissue for the muscle of its people ! 
How different Solomon's temple would have been without the sail- 
ors and workmen of Tyre, the cedar wood and fir wood of her dis- 
tant forests ; the gold of Parvaim and Ophir ; the arts of Egypt 
and Assyria ; the lilies, and lions, and oxen, the pomegranates 
and jjalm trees, and brazen cherubim, the whole copious ornamen- 
tation of that cunning workman, Hiram 1 

141 



4 CENTENNIAL, DISCOURSE. 

The Chiircli of Jesus Christ is being made up in the same way 
" out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." No 
one people, no one nation is or will be i^ermitted to claim a monop- 
oly of contribution to her glory. Our great Ceutennial Exhibi- 
tion, now in progress, where Chinese and Japanese from the gate- 
way of the East, the mighty inventive genius of the West, 
and so many nationalities of different complexions and grades of 
advancement are vying together in peaceful competitive display, 
is not so large and various a combination of materials as will 
compose the Church and its glory when it shall be seen complete 
in heaven. We have occasionally heard a rich brogue or accent 
in the pulpit, anti foreign turns of thought and expression, which 
added greatly to the charm and effect of the sermon or prayer ; 
just as a child's lisp or a woman's voice have sometimes given a 
new touch of tenderness and beauty to the Lord's prayer. And 
this same variety, these effects of diverse training, experience, 
nurture, God is now working into the consummate glory of hea- 
ven. Ah ! there, too, they shall hear them speak every man in 
his own language, " every man in his own tongue wherein he was 
l)orn " — the dear " mother tongue ;" and the great assembly shall 
be perpetually reminded of the largeness and freeness of His 
grace in Christ Jesus. " Out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
people, and nation !" In the history of the Church's develop- 
ment thus far, how many names, each name a powei-, come up in 
illustration of this thought ! What fine fruitage of grace Africa 
presents in Monica and Augustine, devoted mother, time honored 
son ! But Ambrose, by whose help that sou is at length ripened 
into fruitage of grace, is a branch from distant Gaul. And so, as 
the ages i)roceed, and notwithstanding the darkness of some of 
them, we find the " good seed, the children of the kingdom," ever 
more widely scattered ; and producing among different i)eople 
and tongues such kings of thought and kingly souls as Bernard, 
and Luther, and Calvin, and Wesley, and Edwards, 

" The dead but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule 
Our spirits from their urns." 

And ultimately, all these "nations of the saved," gathered along 
the banks of the river, " clear as crystal," shall yield united trib- 
ute to the glory of the one King and the one kingdom. 

But our subject leads us on into yet other fields illustrative of 
the thought with which we have commenced. We see the Ch urch, 

142 



THE HUGUENOT ELEMENT. 5 

itself thus made up, furnishing the elements of national greatness. 
What a country is ours ! Here are united States, but one flag, 
one glory, one nation. The beams our country sends forth as the 
morning, to signal upon the mountain tops the approach of a 
liberating day for nations long subjected to darkness of misrule 
and tyranny, are the emanant lustre of our central, supreme sun. 
When, however, with the spirit of analytic research, we examine 
that lustre which enfolds us Americans, as well as the world over 
which it outreaches, we again discover generic internal differ- 
ences. From no single source is this great light fed, from no 
single element was it kindled. To find its beginning we must go 
back to the Reformation and the Church in different countries. 
The incipiency of this flame, the gathering and preparation of the 
materials of which it was principally to be composed, was there. 

The i)ilgrims and Puritans of England have been celebrated by 
many chroniclers, as they grandly deserved to be. The important 
influence of Holland and the Dutch has not been unrecognized. 
But how few, comparatively, know the storj^ of the Huguenots of 
France, or what a good "leaven" the Huguenot element was in 
Holland or has been among ourselves. It is my part in this course 
of sermons to sketch thehistory of this element, particularly^ "among 
the Dutch ;" to show how nobly it reinforced, by characteristics of 
its own, that other early ingredient of our country's greatness. 

Scientists have remarked that the shells of the teredo, found in 
the fossil wood about Brussels, give out, when newly extracted 
from the soil, a strong scent of the ocean. But that ocean, they 
tell us, was one belonging to the far distant aeocene era, of which 
these shells are themselves the fossils and relics. The name 
Huguenot, likewise, is to-day only a fossil of the past, but one 
still odorous of the ocean, happily no longer existent, whose 
surges ultimately brought it to these shores. You cannot exhume 
or mention it without being reminded (if a historian) of long and 
dire persecution lor conscience sake, of auto da fes, and St. Bar- 
tholomew, and the Dragon imdes. It was amid such scenes of in- 
tenRe suffering, perpetually driven and hunted, that the Huguenot 
got his name and the characteristics that are still fragrantly asso- 
ciated with it. The name itself dates back to 15G0, and is said by 
the Sieur de Castelnau, who lived in those times, to have come 
from a small piece of French money. When at the outset of the 
religious wars of that period the Protestantj fled, the country 
people called them in derision " poor fellows, not worth a Hugue- 

143 



6 CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

not;'' ami the title, thus originally given, was ultimately assumed 
by themselves, just as Methodist was by the Methodists. D'Au- 
bigne, however, connects it with Eidesgenossen (confederates, oath 
mates), the name of a Grerman-Swiss patriot political party, which 
was subsequently in France corrupted into Huguenot, and which 
implied that the French Protestants were both foreign, republican 
and heretical — three things well adapted to bring down upon 
them the ire of king and Catholic; and this is now the commonly 
accepted derivation. But whatever gave rise to the name, or 
whatever the stigma it was intended to express, it is certain 
that French Protestantism was not foreign in its origin, and noth- 
ing then new. Heretical it was, as a purely Bible Christianity 
always must be to the church of Eome ; republican only so far as 
this, that liberty of conscience, with God's Word as the alone rule 
of faith and practice, leads to a higher manhood and a sober 
liberty of thought in matters civil as well as religious. If, in the 
onward roll of ideas and their accompanying events, Church and 
State, tyrannical kingly power and other such evils, go down 
amid noise and confusion, doubtless it may be properly traced to 
Protestantism — that is, to the Bible and freedom of conscience — 
just as we trace the Ehine and Rhone over man j^ dangerous rapids 
and cascades back to their source in the pure and limpid Alpine 
glacier. Therefore far seeing Pope and priest, as well as king, did 
well to bestir themselves, buckle on their fury, and greet this ris- 
ing sect with the danger boding cry, " Art thou a king, then!" 
If, however, we seek its origin, apparently how harmless ! Le- 
febre, Doctor of the Sorbonne and good Catholic, has replaced 
literature, philosophy and the old scholastic theology with some 
lectures right out of the Bible. What harm in that ! It was be- 
fore Luther's conversion or Zwingle's in Switzerland — before 1512. 
The age was astir with literary achievement, as the morning is 
alive and vocal with the early melody of birds ; but no movement 
of dawn was visible anywhere over the moral world. Who could 
fear or dream of a Reformation beginning in Paris, because an old 
college professor had introduced there the study of the Bible? 
But soon Lefebre is himself stung by the truth he is handling 
and exhibiting — the doctrine of justification by faith. It inflames 
first his heart and then his tongue ; and that eloquent tongue con- 
veys the truth to others. Lefebre is a trough at which others are 
eagerly drinking, and among them, especially, one who will go 
fast and far — Farel, of Dauphiny, under the Alps (the home of so 

144 



THE HUGUENOT ELEMENT. 7 

many of the future exiles), the pioneer missionary and eminent 
reformer of France. 

Thus begun in Paris, and at the very centre of literature, the 
Reformation is not long in spreading. It enters the Court, and 
numbers the king's sister, the brightest womanly star of her day, 
Margaret of Valois, among its adherents. It affects the nobility ; 
then it transfers itself, with the persecuted and venerable Lefebre, 
to Meaux, and gets down among the artisans and wool combers of 
that city, and enters with its transforming power the adjacent 
villages. Even the bishop is, for a time, the earnest colaborer of 
Lefebre and Farel. And so the good work goes on and widens, 
taking root throughout France; much helped, after 1521, by 
Luther's work and writings. Not, however, meanwhile, without 
persecution. Instead of Pharisees we have merely to read priests 
and monks, and the scenes of the Acts of the Aj)ostles are every- 
where repeated, only with worse violence. Nothing can be more 
touching than the public whipping on three successive days, then 
the branding of John Leclerc, wool comber of Meaux, in 1523. 
The heroic victim himself is silent amid the hooting crowd ; but 
as the iron penetrates the burning flesh, one female shriek is 
heard, that could no longer be repressed ; then, immediately, 
the exclamation, " Glory be to Jesus Christ and His witnesses;" 
and then his mother passes out of the awed and opening throng, 
with faltering step, to her home. " Not one of her enemies," says 
Beza, " dared put forth his hand against her." She will not say 
diflerently, nor will he fail, when, a year or two later, this same 
sou meets death by slow fire, after having had his hand cut off, 
his nose torn away with hot pincers, his arms, breasts and whole 
body lacerated with cruel burnings — the first of that long succes- 
sion, in France, of martyrs for Jesus. Or, shall we not rather 
call his mother the first and greatest, pierced, as she was, by 
every blow before it reached him, and bravely bearing the pain, 
of life long after life and pain had left him ? 

Let us come down to 1560. Neither the tires of piety nor of 
persecution have burned low with the lapse of years. The one 
feeds the other. If at any time the flame of piety lulls, there is 
always some monk or doctor of the Sorbonne ready to stir it up 
again with fresh persecutions, to give some martyr the chance to 
show his burning zeal and the power of Divine grace. A spark 
in the embers is enough for the quick eye of these devoted agents 
of the Pope. Hence, of the blood of the martyr, which is " the 

10 145 



8 CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

seed of the Church," there is plenty. Neither the appeals of his 
sister, Margaret, nor Calvin's efforts, can prevent the king him- 
self from joining in. He is afraid " that if he suffers his people to 
change their religion" {i. c, to exercise freedom of conscience) 
" they will soon change their prince." Thus, Church and State 
are united, and the air is hot; so hot that many are already 
obliged to escape for their lives into other countries. And yet 
everywhere there is zeal, activity, growth. Head winds and side 
winds seem only to combine to blow the ship onward. There are 
churches and pastors. The New Testament, translated by Lefe- 
bre, and printed copiously by means of funds from Lyons, and 
Meaux, and Metz, as well as tracts by Farel, are being circulated 
by colporteurs everywhere. And what a host — by his letters, com- 
mentaries and other works — is Calvin, the greatest of French 
Eeformers, to whom the world itself is indebted ! And in 1540, to 
give an impulse to the Gospel, as yet unattained by it, comes 
Clement Marot. Although no longer professing Protestantism, 
which he has renounced, and only wishing to improve public taste, 
he is induced, by the Hebrew Professor of the Sorbonne, to trans- 
late into French verse some of David's Psalms. This he did with 
at first twenty, and afterwards thirty more of the Psalms. Being 
in ballad measure and sweetly worded, their effect was wonderful. 
King, queen, heir apparent and court, are soon humming or sing- 
ing, each his or her favorite psalm, to some favorite ballad tune. 
Other classes follow the fashion till Marot's Psalms have become 
national. 

Especially was Calvin impressed with their power. Therefore he 
persuaded Beza to translate the remaining one hundred, and had 
them all bound up together, with music adapted to each Psalm. 
Thus they passed into the congregations of the Eeformed, were 
interspersed during their service, and were sung by all, men, 
women and boys together. It was the introduction of congrega- 
tional singing, in the pure vernacular of Christian thought and 
feeling, instead of the old Latin and choral music of the Eomish 
ehurch. Even where Marot's Psalms had begun to be used by 
the Eomanists, they were speedily resigned to the Eeformed. 
What a power— nuisic for the people! What a gift for Calvin 
and his fellow Christians of France and Geneva to send or carry 
into Germany, Holland, England ! What a heritage of blessing 
to leave to the world ! It was the first direct influence exerted 
by French Protestantism upon the church life of other countries 

146 



THE HUaUENOT ELEMENT. 9 

Kot, however, the only one of tliis period, so far as Holland was 
concerned. The model of the Dntch Church in its form of gov. 
ernment, and as it has come down to us, was the French. In 
each church was a Consistory, or body of Elders. Above this 
was a body of Ministers and Elders — substantially our Classis, but 
called a Colloquy or Conference. Then contiguous Colloquys 
were united into Provincial Synods. And above all, and uniting 
all by delegates from each Synod, was the National or General 
Synod. 

Thus far we have been busy with the Huguenot element in 
France itself, up to the point where its influence has manifestly 
diverged into Holland. Our work now is to trace it in connection 
with that country. 

In 15G5, despite persecution, we find the Eeformed Church of 
France embracing a fourth part of the kingdom ; containing over 
two thousand churches, some of them with ten thousand mem- 
bers ; numbering among its members illustrious princes, lords, 
soldiers and men of letters— holding its National Synod even in 
Paris. But alliance with rank and greatness led to wars, partly 
religious and partly political — in which the white cloth uniform 
of the Huguenot soldiery, and the white velvet of their generals, 
were alike dyed with blood which was not the blood of martyr- 
dom. They showed, however, their high qualities. They knelt 
in prayer on the battle field. They were cool and steadfast even 
in defeat. They sought no concealment of flowing blood, as the 
ancient Spartans did, through a livery of scarlet. Amid the 
demoralization of war they maintained a high tone of virtue. No 
nobler soul has ever shone in the forefront of stirring times, no 
purer Christian than their leader, brave old Admiral Coligni. 
We pass over these times ; and over the dire day of St. Bartholo. 
mew, August 24, 1572, which witnessed Coligni's death ; when 
the matins of the great bell of Notre Dame awoke in the streets 
of Paris that fearful sleuth hound cry, " kill ! kill !" O you 
Huguenots ! O you Huguenots ! The blood that France then 
tasted was that of her own children, torn to pieces because they 
were Huguenots. But the thirst then communicated, although 
dormant for a while, will break out again in a mania a jpotu. 
Ultimately we shall see it during the Revolution, rending her 
sons aiul daughters Avith indiscriminate fury. 

The Edict of Nantes, signed April 13, 1598, ended these scenes 
with toleration to the Protestants. Nor were they again arrayed 

147 



10 CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

iu arms till Eichelieu's time, who broke their political consequence 
at the famous siege of Eoclielle. Henceforth they " browsed on 
weeds " politically and socially, but were legally tolerated till the 
Kevocation of the Edict in 1085, by Louis XIV. They were then 
one million in twenty millions. The air was again hot with per- 
secution. Such scenes occurred as have been eloquently por- 
trayed by Bungener, in his " Priest and Huguenot," when the 
"booted missionaries" were tracking them everywhere. They 
could endure it no longer. That fearful blunder and crime of 
Louis XIV precipitated them upon Holland (particularly) in such 
vast numbers, that it was said " Holland was full." They were 
of all ranks — gentlemen and merchants, schoolmasters, professors 
and clergymen, soldiers and shepherds, noble ladies and servant 
girls. It is important, therefore, to consider them as they were 
at home. For just what France lost Holland gained as a part of 
its own riches. They indeed " borrowed " no "jewels " when they 
fled. It was singly, or by families, and in poverty. Still, no 
more destructive exodus could have occurred. They left behind 
them the loom, but took the skill that had laden it with fabrics ; 
they left the field, but deprived of its best cultivator ; the pulpit, 
but without a voice from God to man ; they left France despoiled 
of her industries and commerce, and bereft of her best citizens. 
The Huguenot at home was hated, but why ? Separated by his 
faith, as a Calvinist, from many practices of the Komish church, 
which to him were perpetual symbols of that church's unbelief in 
the one finished oflering of Christ for salvation, he stood in the 
eyes of a church that would and could allow no dissent, and of a 
community devoted to the church, the worst thing that could be 
said of him, a man tainted with heresy. Had he been only an 
Atheist or Infidel the offence would have been passable. But he 
was a man of a different stamp. He had positive principles and 
would not conform. He attended no masses, invoked neither 
Virgin nor saints, had no belief in relics or indulgences, performed 
no penances, nor went to confession. He was a man who thought 
for himself, ventured to interpret the Bible for himself, and 
exalted it above Pope or Councils as the alone authority. In ajl 
this he was immovable, as his Huguenot ancestors had been ; 
and, therefore, to the church a rock of offence, menace and dan- 
ger, and in the community a mark for dislike, partly inherited 
and partly personal. And yet, personally, the Huguenot should 
have been honored and loved. If he attended no church fetes 

148 



THE HUGUENOT ELEMENT. 11 

and festivals, never joined in the gaiety of cliurcli holidays, and 
his demeanor was grave, it was only the outer surface under 
which flowed many deep virtues and waters of sympathy. Of a 
different stock from the blunt Puritan, his manners were mild 
and noted for courtesy. He governed himself, and trained his 
family also to order, neatness, the Bible virtues and refinements 
of life. " Patient as a Huguenot " had passed into a proverb. 
As a class, it was the most industrious, intelligent and orderly 
portion of the people. But tliis character itself, with the comforts 
and success it brought, was a cause of antipathy among other 
classes. The very virtues of the Huguenot were turned against 
him. He had no riglit to anything, no right to be prosi)erous, 
because he was a Huguenot. And when Louis XIV, out of his 
own bigotry and desire to be absolute, at last revoked the Edict 
of Kantes, and let slip the dogs of malice and persecution, it was 
so popular an act that all classes applauded and proclaimed him 
a saint. 

Could it be that such an element should exist in so compact and 
congenial a country as Holland and produce no marked efiect ? 
In reality they at once laid down at the feet of their benefactor 
all the trophies of their industry. Holland received them (for 
the most part) poor; they made her rich. The manufiicture of 
silks, linens, woolens, hats, paper and books, passed from France 
into her possession, and changed expensive imj^orts into lucrative 
exports. So that, if they came to their new home as the poor 
bride, without a jewel on her fingers save the chaste wedding- 
ring that marked an enduring union, there was in the nimble 
fingers themselves, so skilful wath the distaft" and spindle, ample 
dowry for the present, large legacy for the future. Material 
wealth, however, was not the only or the best blessing the^* 
brought to Holland. Thej' were the bolted wheat of their own 
nation ; men and women who had been tutored into religious 
habits by long suffering; men and women who also combined in- 
telligence and culture with piety. In France they had always 
been particular about education ; and in their adopted country it 
is their just praise to say that they brought down education to 
the masses and made it popular. If it had been before a feast for 
the gods, they now made it a savory meal for the humblest of 
men. The truth is, they found literature and learning imiirisoned 
in Latin, and accessible to only the few. Women were almost en- 
tirely excluded from the gates of this isolated and guarded enclo 

149 



12 CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

sure. But many of the refugees were fine writers; and by the 
introduction of Frencli in place of the Latin, which made all liter- 
ature as recluse as a monk, national history, theology and science 
speedily dropped down and were liberated to the comprehension 
and enjoyment of great numbers. In this respect education and 
culture (its nearest relatives) had no reason to mourn when Latin 
became a dead language. It is true, the change elevated it to a 
pedestal of glory, where it would stand in Parian purity and change- 
less elegance, while the living tongue soon became corrupted by, 
and a corrupter of the Dutch. But the impetus was given. The 
many schools the Huguenots founded, and the houses of educa- 
tion for both boys and girls, with knowledge unlocked before them, 
remained a privilege of Holland and a memento of their coming. 
And so, in one other respect their influence should here be noted, 
upon the pulpit and preaching of Holland — the source of our own 
earlier ministry. The preaching there had become too didactic, 
and in the effort to instruct, had lost force and fervor. But the 
Huguenot preachers soon injected French vivacity and fire into 
its veins, and turned Dutch phlegm into blood eloquence. Who 
has not heard of " Saurin's Sermons ?" What, however, is the 
best sermon in the book, with all its imagery, brilliancj^, fine 
method, purity of style, or the elevation and power of its thoughts 
to that same sermon (or any other) uttered by Saurin himself? 
And they had the man, settled at the Hague, the centre of influ- 
ence 5 of whom one asked, wbo heard him for the first time, " is 
this a man or an angel who is speaking to us f And so all were 
captivated by his melodious and resonant voice, his noble coun- 
tenance, his ardor, as well as his sermons and wonderful i^rayers. 
They had Claude, too ; if not so gifted in manner, and voice, and 
apjiearance, the man to draw students and have his influence re- 
bound from the lips of others, preachers made by him ; and whom 
a single " Essay on the Comi)osition of a Sermon " has made known 
down to our own day. Nor has the history failed to pay tribute, 
as a perfect orator, to Du Bosc, of Rotterdam, so sweetly surnamed 
the " preacher of grace," and of whom Louis XIV exclaimed, " I 
have just listened to the man who speaks the best of all my king- 
dom ; it is certain, at least, that I never heard one speak so well." 
When he was exiled, Denmark, Holland and England disputed 
the honor of giving him shelter. He died young, it is true, only 
four years after his coming to Rotterdam. But if such was the 
meteor in its short blaze, what must have been the light and in- 

150 



THE HUGUENOT ELEMENT. 13 

fluence of the two hundred fixed stars, the pastors whom France 
so recklessly shook from her own heavens to illuminate Holland? 
The peers, some of them of Bossuet and Massillon and Bourda- 
loue, all of them burning with a kindred and radiating warmth, 
they changed the whole spirit of the Dutch pulpit. Tlie3^ taught 
it fervor aijd simi)licity of appeal ; they taught the rodent rat, 
gnawing away at the roots of things (which some of the Dutch 
preachers too much resembled), to leave the deep, and hard, and 
dry, and to come out into more friendly sympathy and companion- 
ship with men. Both preacher and pastor felt the effect of their ex- 
ample. Easy and affable with rich and poor, they converted the 
pulpit from dulness to eloquence, and the pastorate from official 
routine to living intercourse. Such was another featnre of the 
good they did to Holland. 

But that good broadens in its results, as we shall see, if we con- 
sider it nationally and politically. 

When Wesley (six years old) was pulled through the window 
of his father's burning rectory, bj'^ a man standing on another 
man's shoulders, and immediately the roof fell in, doubtless there 
was a Providence in it, but one as yet shut up in the bud. No 
one saw what was in or would come out of the circumstance, 
though his father was properly thankful for the preservation of all 
his eight children. And when absolutist King Louis was ejecting 
that herd of Huguenots, little did he dream what would come of 
it. Had he planted an acorn he would have known wliat fruit to 
expect. But here the result was a secret, shut up in the bosom of 
Sovereign wisdom. His own act, however, was the "cake of bar- 
ley bread that tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a 
tent and overturned it." That it did so much was no fancy of one 
telling " his dream." In Holland, at the time, was one William 
the Silent, Prince of Orange. His head was a hive of plans, 
which contained honey for Holland and England, but stings for 
Louis and James. But there was, also, a party opposed to the 
Prince, secretly formed by France, and undermining his plans. 
Things were just then at the critical moment which involved, as a 
later event, the victory of Popery or Protestantism in England, 
the downfall of James, and the blessings to liberty, religion and 
the world, which have followed. It was at such a moment that 
the Huguenots came, in Providence, to reinforce the Prince by the 
story of their wrongs, by their numbers and their talents — toman 
his fleet, strengthen his army, help his embarkation for England,- 

151 



14 CENTENNIAL, DISCOURSE. 

and, at the battle of the Boyne, furnisli the regiments and the 
general that decided the day for Protestant ascendancj'. Little' 
Holland (may we not say) was the bud whose petals, for the time, 
enclosed all this ; the Huguenots being, as it were, the fructifying 
stamens standing round the centre of all — a Providence whose 
slowly ripening seeds would be seeds of good to men. 

It is, however, individuals who, under Providence, shape 
history. It is the individual ancestor of strong character who 
impresses his image on his race; just as we see a nose or a 
lip of peculiar fonu repeating themselves through many gene- 
rations. And though we cannot always answer the question, 
" Whose is this image and supercription," we know the law. 
When, therefore, we consider the character and numbers of 
these refugees in Holland, can it be wrong to conclude that 
there is much called Dutch — more than it is usual to suppose 
— which, up the stream, came from a Huguenot source? Espe- 
cially does the conclusion strengthen when we find, among 
many such changes, the French Leblanc altered into its syn- 
onyme De Witt, and in English, Dwight ; the Chevaliers be- 
coming De liuyter ; the Dumoulins, Van der or Ver Meulen ; and 
names so thoroughly Dutch as De Groot derived from Legrand, 
Van den Berg from Dumont (from the mountain), and Van den 
Bogaard from Dnjardin (from the garden). Where are they, 
these precious spots (the mountain, the garden), the record of 
which has thus come down from father to son, preserved in the 
amber of a name "? Nowhere in Holland. Somewhere among the 
long left hills and valleys of France. The pleasant reality has 
long ago faded into a mere name — faded as have so many other 
pleasant things : our childhood, youth and early homes, "from" 
which we have ever since been dejiarting. Some of us carry our 
symbols with us, woven into the texture of our very names — 
strangers and pilgrims. They are symbols of movement, and 
change, and departiugs. Our ancestors departed and sought shel- 
ter among the dykes of Holland. Another roll of the wave of 
time and their descendants are in America. There will come yet 
another wave, long, surging, irresistible, before which the dykes 
of time itself will give way. Then the symbolism of a name will 
again be fulfilled in a final departing — it is Ver miglio ( Vermilye), 
"from" the midst. 

It only remains for us now to complete this sketch with an account 
of the Huguenots " among the Dutch " of our own country. 

152 



THE HUaUENOT ELEMENT. 15 

When one is grown and the character of his mauhood has de- 
veloi)ed itself, we like to go back, if we can, and cou his childhood 
and youth. Who were his parents, what relatives or friends of 
note witnessed the christening scene, who or what influences 
nursed him into growth, who taught him, and things like these, 
are interesting fragments. We dip into the past with zest, and 
trace its connection with the present. Of course there is an ele- 
ment of sadness about it, as we discover what time has been do- 
ing with the past itself, once so gracefnl and vigorous. It strikes 
one with a certain sense of sadness to stand on the shore and see 
the ships go silently seaward, till the latest lingerer is at length 
lost to view below the horizon. But what is this to the changes 
that have taken i)lace even between youth and manhood? What 
is it for sadness to the sight of old families dying out, old man- 
sions, once generous and grand, turned into boarding liouses, or 
only awaiting, like some deserted hulk on the shore, the hour of 
inevitable destruction"? * What is it, in view of that plaintive 
utterancCjWhether applied to families or communities, "And Joseph 
died and all his brethren and all that generation." Yet, on the 
other hand, there is great pleasure in recalling the youthful be- 
ginnings of energetic and dignified manhood. The parents may 
lie in the old churchyard, the schoolmaster be dead, and the sur- 
roundings be all different; but that manhood, we well know, 
would not have been what it is in its expanded glory, sei^arate 
from the soil that produced it. 

Such feelings mingle as we turn back from the present of our 
country to its youthful beginnings, as w^e trace it through the 
stripling state to the auguries of the cradle. Its baptism was 
under the blessing of Almighty God. There were present as wit- 
nesses and as sponsors, to whom its youth was to be entrusted, 
the elect of various nations ; and to them God gave solemn charge, 
as concerning another Moses, " Take this child and nurse it for 
me." We cannot follow them all in their relation to its destinies 
during the period of incipient growth — a period prolonged as a 
patriarch's youth, and to be succeeded (as we hope) by a pa- 
triarch's longevity. To attempt it of one of them may be the vain 
attempt to " curdle a long life into an hour." But the Huguenot 
(our theme) was there as one selected of Providence, and doing 

* It is understood that the fine old manor house of the Van Rensselaers in Albany, 
built iu 1765, is soon to be taken down, and the place of so many hospitalities to bo 
given up to business purposes. 

153 



16 CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

his part in the nursing of this joung cliikl. To-day the Huguenot 
has no recognition or influence as a distinct and separate element 
in the land. This is well, doubtless, even if in some respects to be 
regretted : for we want no divisions — no Irish, no Germans, no 
Dutch, no North, no South — only one country, and all Americans. 
It lives, however, an element time honored and respected every- 
where ; but only (we must content ourselves with saying) as the 
old nurse whose children have married into other names, and who 
herself lives lovingly cherished for past services in the family 
whose glory from the beginning she has aided and shared. It is 
to those services we must turn if we would do justice to the Hugue- 
not. And first, to look for a moment outside the Dutch, and to 
mention but an item or two, what a power has been Faneuil 
Hall, immortalized as the " cradle of liberty " — the gift of a Hugue- 
not ! Its vane is a grasshopper, after his armorial crest— quick in 
motion, bold, fruitful, pervasive, like the thoughts and the speech 
that have been wont to come from this hall of liberty. What would 
Maine be without the institution that commemorates the munifl 
cence, the regard for learning and the name of Bowdoin, a Hugue- 
not f Or, to go South , could our history spare, without being incom- 
plete, the name and the deeds of Marion the swamp fox of Carolina, 
or Horry, or Huger, or Laurens ? Can we read without pride of the 
princely loan, during the Eevolution, of $220,000 by Gabriel Mani- 
gault, when the treasury of the country was in deej) distress for 
means to carry on the war ? Can we doubt the excellence and pa- 
triotism of the stock, numerically small, that furnished three out ol 
seven of the Presidents of the Continental Congress — Jay, Laurens 
and Boudinot? It was a Huguenot voice — that of Duche — which 
oi:)ened that Congress with prayer; a Huguenot (Laurens) who 
drew the articles of capitulation at Yorktown ; Huguenots (two, 
at least, of the four) who signed the treaty of Paris ; and a Hugue- 
not (Boudinot) who, as President of Congress, set thereto the seal 
of peace and independence to America. And thirty years later, in 
1814, and again signing a treaty of peace, of this same stock we 
have James Bayard and Albert Gallatin. 

But to return to the Dutch. This carries us back to the earliest 
times of New York, New Amsterdam. And at once we are 
struck with a difference between the colony there located and 
that which formed the nucleus of New England. The one homo- 
geneous, the other heterogeneous ; the one landlocked in its sym- 
pathies as the bay of Boston, the other stretching out arms of 

154 



THE HUGUENOT ELEMENT. 17 

access and welcome to the world, like Xhe harbor and anchorage 
of Kew York. In 1623 the colony first assumed shape of perma- 
nency ; and in 1643 eighteen different languages were said, by its 
Director-General, to be spoken among the inhabitants. Thus, 
even at that early date, New York resembled one of those islands 
of the South Sea, where birds of distinct tribes build along the 
streets of the same feathery metropolis, where the air resounds 
with the din and jargon of their dissonant voices, but where (tol- 
erant if not akin) the same nest receives and shelters a diverse 
brood. Nor can we doubt that it was the wisest policy, under 
the circumstances, this spirit of tolerance and hospitality which 
they irai)orted direct from Holland, and which characterized 
New York. For, like a great drag net spread out over the coun- 
tries, it drew to its shores — as they drew in the fish from the sur- 
rounding rivers — just the men and women that were needed to 
build u]} this vast emporium. Among them, and next to the 
Dutch in wealth and numbers, were the Huguenots. They came 
from Holland and from France. Came, many of them, with the 
cinders of iiersecution still on their garments 5 and many of them, 
too, disguised as to their lineage by names that were Dutch. 
And they came early. Peter Minuit, for six years the first 
Governor, was a Huguenot. The first child born among the col- 
onists was the daughter of George Eapelye, a Huguenot. " Kill ! 
kill !" cried Charles the Ninth, at the massacre of St. Bartholo- 
mew ; but the Lord said diflerently as to some of them. So the 
Eapelyes escaped into Holland. And, since the Lord seems to be 
still the guardian of the family, here is yet safe deliverance and a 
child for them, after all perils, on distant shores, in a new home, 
in which that child is to be, and to bear the honor of being the 
firstjbprn,^ It was the beginning of a large Huguenot increase, 
both by births and by emigration ; an increase so large and 
withal respectable that a Huguenot was j)ractically associated 
with the Governor in the conduct of affairs, and that public docu- 
ments were printed in French as well as in Dutch. 

If now we dwell more particularly upon the character of these 
Huguenots, we shall find them how admirably adapted to the 
work they had to do ! That character is indicated somewhat in 
the fact that when, in 1628, the first minister, Michaelius, gave 
form and being to the first church of the colony, Minuit, the 
governor, was one of the two elders selected, and in the fact that, 
at the first communion, of fifty communicants a large part were 

155 



18 c:Ei>'T£xyiAi. discottest:. 

Hu^enots, Indeed, the religious element in this nobly Christian 
people does nor seem, as we trace them, to have lost its strength 
bv transplantaiion. What a b«iutil'nl picture is that afforded, 
even many years later, by their habits of Sunday service ! It is 
at the old church du Sr. Esprit. Every street around is lilled with 
w^agons and carts. They started Satunlay afternoon, and have 
come from ^ew Eochelle. twenty-three miles distant, filled with 
women and children. All that distance the men have walked be- 
side them, from time to time beguiling the way and the night by 
a song out of that old ancestral fevorite. Alarot's Psalms. Some- 
where in the outskirts a frngal morning meal has been eaten, the 
dost oi the long travel has been removed, and now. with similar 
companies from Long Island. Staten Island and intermediate 
places, they await the bell to begin their Sabbath devotions. They 
will pass the day in hearing what they love — the plain, familiar 
Gosyiel in Erench — in singing the low. plaintive mtisic. set in mi- 
nor key. to Marot's Psalms, and in prayers, and then return at 
night, as they came, to their homes. How different is the vigor- 
ous and persistent religious spirit thus indicated, which change 
and hardship have not impaired — which neither heat nor cold have 
thus far been able to subdue — which, in a remote trading settle- 
ment, without other outward aid at first than prayers in a grist- 
mill, nevertheless maintains itsdf in life — how different from 
what has been since seen in California and in other colonies ot 
the world I It is one of the marvels of Providence that this coun- 
try was settled just when it was, and by whom it was — by men 
such as the Puritans, and Hollanders, and Huguenots, whose 
religion the temperature of outward circumstances could not 
kiU. because, like the frozen spider, it had life still beating at 
the heart- 
Piety, however, was not the only quality which distinguished 
the^e Huguenots of Xew York. K that lay deepest in the centre, 
and was the vital one, there were branching veins which contrib- 
ute«i much to their worth in the community. They were every 
way a more graceful force, acting upon the life of the colony, than 
the Dutch. In becoming Huguenots they had not ceased to be 
French. They had made no attempt to slough off that heritage, 
which was as d^r to them as thefr religion. We must remember 
that none of them had left Erance voluntarily. They had been 
torn np by the roots, and had yielded to the push of persecution. 
But when that st^n pressure was removed, they yearned for the 

1»6 



THE HrGrE>-OT ULE^IENT. 1® 



Old SOU If they had been grave and sedate ^vhen necef^sity 
demanded it. 5o\soon as its grasp was relaxed they inverted to 
theoldtvpe. They were French all over. How French (and how 
charming) is that little incident related of one-a venerable emi- 
crrant of >'ew EocheUe-who daily wandered to the shore, turned 
Tn the direction of France, and there (with a few others who by 
de-rees joined him : ponred out his morning prayer, and sang one 
of ^Iarot•s psalms ! Therefore, in our analysis of their icdueuce 
.. amou- the Dutch." we should consider how they differed trom 
them and what they contributed of their own. They loved dress, 
^e find, more than the plain dressing Hollanders. They were 
French Similarly, theii temperament was more gay coloretl. 
vivacious and cheerful. Hence, they never could be luduc-etl to 
imitate the domestic manners of the Dutch. The Dntchman s 
house was swept, scrubbed, sanded and closed for the week- 
'except an open front door and the kitchen. He plodded, and cul- 
tivated sobrietv ; whilst, on the other hand, the Huguenot, with 
equal neatness"^and good order, blended the urbanity and refine- 
ment. and eniovments of life. We have only to run back over the 
previous history to see what was ancestral in his case, to know 
^hat he brought to the infant colony. By heredity there was cul- 
ture ba^ed upon a character •• good, amiable and alible. 31en- 
tal culture. reUgious cultnre, social culture, industry and a careful 
^en'^e of dutv. had come down to him as a part of his faith, and as 
a habit of life which, with chivalric faithfulness, he should keep 
up and transmit to his children. It was an heirloom as sacred to 
the Hu-uenot as the old family Bible, which reminded him con- 
tinuallv^of his ancestors, their faith and sufferings, and ot his own 
duty 'it was all a trust, which he could not get nd ot. it he 
^^olild• for his own character was an heirloom. It had received 
a Twlish and a grace of outline and had been inlaid with social 
virtues, set deep in the grain, which he could neither remove nor 

^^'^A^d not only did the Huguenots enrich the colony with a finer 

.ocial element.'numerous enough to make itself felt in the tutnre, 
but thev addeil a graceful skill, connected with energy and mdiis- 
tiv to\he employments of life. From what ^ew York is now 
can we contract our imagination to what it was then ? It extends 
to Will street, with woods to Chambers street. Its houses 
and buildings are few and crudely constructed. >ot a wharf 
reache^^ a hand span into the river in hope and exi^ectation ot com- 



20 CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

merce. A wind mill and a grist mill are its industries. Its orch- 
ards are the primitive pine, and its gardens the wild vine and 
thorn. How much there is to be done to transform this rude be- 
ginning into the rising and then the glorious city! Even the 
graceful touch of a hand will now bear fruit ; if it be only the 
planting of a pear tree, it may bear fruit two hundred years after- 
wards. And it was just in the direction of useful and ornamental 
industry that the Huguenots excelled. They shirked no labor of 
any kind, but honestly bent their backs to the burden, whatever 
it was. Yet they differed very usefully from the hard working 
but generally less refined and versatile Dutch. If they brought 
with them few or no old pictures, the masterpieces of others, to 
embellish a wall, they had themselves the happy art of embel- 
lishing on a larger scale; of introducing new arts and employ- 
ments, of making privation cheerful with comforts, and of cloth- 
ing nature herself, hitherto all primitive, with new and grace- 
ful productions. We must not suppose that, because tiles, and 
bricks, and nails and other such articles of use came from Holland, 
the colonists needed no genius for construction. They needed it 
every day. Besides, they were constructing here something very 
different from anything in Holland— something which would be 
the growth of new circumstances, new soil, and a combined people. 
It was thej* who in every sphere were making and shaping, by 
their industry, intelligence and skill, the institutions, the employ- 
ments, even the fruitage of the city and neighborhood which they 
occupied. Do we remember that our most delicious fruits — the 
apple, the pear, the peach and others — are not indigenous, but 
foreign ? They all had to be planted by some hand before the 
world could taste, or the colonists themselves, the choice Ameri- 
can varieties. Nature, too, had first to be subdued by incessant 
.labor before she would wear as a habit the flowered robes and the 
cultured ornaments of the orchard and garden. And in these very 
matters the Huguenot was an acquisition. He was especiall}^ 
skilful in agriculture. Flowers and fruits, vines and trees, or- 
chards and gardens grew up under his dexterous care. The 
quince can be traced directly to him. He was like the bumble 
bee, replacing, as its given work, the stems of common gi-ass with 
the beautiful red clover, the germs of which, with winged indus- 
try, it conveys from flower to flower and field to field. 

It is not necessary to tbllow " the Huguenots among the Dutch " 
with any particularity after this period. The germs of the great 

158 



THE HUGUENOT ELEMENT. 21 

city were all there. Henceforth there will be expansion and 
growth, but in what direotion has already — within the first fitty 
years — been substantially decided. The same forces — Dutch, 
Huguenots and others — will be at work upon it, upon its political, 
religious, commercial and social life, with energies unspent. In 
time both Dutch and Huguenot will drop their almost obsolete 
languages and speak a common English. It has, therefore, -come 
to pass that, beyond a name or a family tradition, or the old Bible, 
there is little to indicate who of us were originally Dutch, or 
Huguenot, or English. We are Americans, who have left the 
sources of our several streams for the noble bay which includes us 
all. Sometimes the secret i^eeps in a look or betrays itself in a 
trait. But blood is thicker than water ; and the Huguenot blood, 
unless the principles of heredity fail, is not one to wash out easily 
or fade out quickly with time. All the great elements — religion, 
intelligence, integrity, energy — have been here combined to make 
it stroug, self-asserting, lasting. Accordingly, wherever a Hugue- 
not name has survived the fate of time and the mixture of race, 
we have been apt to find it in honorable connections. Sometimes 
a street tells us of one that was considered worthy of perpetuity, 
as Jay, Desbrosses, Lispenard, Bleecker, Delancey. The name of 
John Pintard, a man of many charities, and tbe founder of the N. 
Y. Historical Society, is still cherished among the membership of 
that society ; whilst in its present president, Mr. De Peyster, runs 
the same old blue blood of the Huguenots. The name of Gallau- 
det, with its blessed associations, lives over again in his son, a 
resident of New York. Law, the judiciary, statesmanshii?, worth, 
were all eminent in John Jay ; his honors and his usefulness were 
national. Of those who settled on Staten Island the names of La 
Tourette, Bedell, Disosway, Guion, Seguine and others still con- 
tinue familiar and respected. Mamaroneck has had her Bishop, 
De Lancey. And in the Dutch Church, of fragrant memory for 
pulpit and platform eloquence, for poetic gifts, sparkling wit and 
geniality, there lingers the name of Bethune ; whilst in the living 
pulpits are also the Huguenot names Lefevre, De Witt (Leblauc), 
Demarest, Dubois, Denis Wortman, Duryea, Bevier and others. 
Tbe Huguenot Crispell (of New Paltz), like another Claude, still 
teaches the Hollander of the West theology, and trains a rising 
ministry. 

And if we go to New Paltz or Kingston, where the stock still 
retains, in large measure, its purity of descent from sire to sou, 

150 



22 CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

we shall fiud the Huguenot blood not yet stagnant from age, nor 
yet lacking its ancient qualities. With all its French fire it was 
never feverish. The Huguenot took hold of truth with tough 
and tenacious muscle, just as he worked. It was not his charac- 
ter to run into extravagancies either of thought or action. The 
history of both Dutch and Huguenot Protestantism is singularly 
free from some of those eccentricities which marked Germany and 
England, and New England. Elastic in gloom and suffering, 
yielding to no comet alarms or frenzy of witches, on the other 
hand it was Huguenot nature to be cheerful, patient and steady. 
Along the Wallkill they have, from the beginning, illustrated 
these traits. The fields have blossomed under their industry, 
and the valley has fattened and prospered. The bell, which has 
succeeded the horn, still summons, though from a loftier steeple, 
an obedient and worshipful people, devoted to the same faith and 
the same church order. Neat and virtuous households yet attest 
the presence of women of the old stock, though time has, per- 
haps, thrown into less frequent use amoug them the name, once 
held and honored by so many, of Petronella. And if we seek for 
the old Huguenot culture among the homes of this ancestry at 
New Paltz and Kingston, it will not be hard to find its accom- 
plished representatives. Passing from Petronella Hasbrouck (of 
Kingston), and from Judge Hasbrouck, I need only mention, as a 
fitting finish to this recital, one later name, of one honored as he 
is now venerable, the former beloved President of Eutgers Col- 
lege, Abraham Bruyn Hasbrouck. 

In conclusion. Tersely and beautifully the Bible expresses a 
natural sentiment, when it says, " The glory of children are their 
fathers." A religious, an intelligent, an industrious and honest 
parentage and ancestry is a great blessing. This is something 
which no law of primogeniture and no reverse of fortune can take 
away. It is to be heir to a stimulating inheritance. As the 
motive to be honest as they were, and religious as they were, is 
great, so is the disgrace of disgracing those who have built up for 
us such an examijle. And surely those of us who can claim to be 
Huguenots have ample reason to be proud of the long lineage. 
We are in duty bound, by a noble imitation of their virtues, to 
be God fearing and Bible loving. Picked by Providence for a 
great work, tested by almost superhuman suftering, grand in 
endurance and in the quality of their virtues, they became, with 
God's other chosen ones, the massive base on which was to bo 

160 



THE HUaUENOT ELEMENT. 23 

reared this temple of liberty. If this temple, to which the nations 
are already flocking, ever falls, it will not be because of weakness 
or rottenness at the foundation. It will be because the walls and 
pillars are not equal to the weight and strain of a complete build- 
ing. It will be with us, who are the descendants of these chosen 
ones, that the fault will lie. We will, however, hope better things 
for our country, toward which in the past God's providences have 
been so manifest. We would rather think of it as a fruitful Nile, 
pouring its undiminished waters for centuries into the same sea 
with other great nations. We would rather think of travellers 
like Livingstone, or Baker, or Stanley, in the future exploring 
from a populous delta, through banks lined with free and pros- 
perous communities, all speaking the same language and worship- 
ping the same God, up to its sources — and there, standing rever- 
ently, able to say this great lake is the Puritan, this smaller but 
still noble one is the Huguenot. And then (we would have them 
say), as the end of the whole glorious problem, their source — 
whether Puritan, Dutch or Huguenot — the source from which 
they derived all their virtues, is that great watershed, bringing 
its blessings directly from the mountains and clouds of heaven — 

the Bible ! 

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